Determined To Succeed

Today I got my TV reception back.

Turns out that my satellite dish was just a bit out of alignment from all the high winds and rain we had on Monday here in southern New Jersey. Although I went outside to see if I could fix the problem I didn’t readily see a solution. It was dark and the solution didn’t seem as simple as just readjusting the dish a few degrees to get the signal.

Funny how much this actually mirrors and sounds like weight loss.

When I was 400.6 pounds my satellite was seriously out of alignment – with my mind, my heart and my spirit. I couldn’t see how much I needed to just shift my life a few degrees so that the message became clear. I needed to step back and not see food as an automatic part of the solution.

Do not get me wrong. My weight loss dish can go out of alignment any day of the week, and does. Depending on my mood, my frustration level or my anxiety level my dish can go out of whack and I become susceptible to my kryptonite foods (beef fried rice, Milky Way bars and ice-cold Coca-Colas). But I got a piece of advice today from the dish repair guy that I will remember for the rest of my life.

When you don’t get signal just adjust the dish slightly.

It seems simple but the more I thought about it it’s awesome advice. If I start to feel the “need” to eat I’m going to take a moment and think about “why” I want to eat. “Why” my dish came out of alignment and “why” I want to solve it with food. Then I’m gonna realign my dish by solving the problem that caused my dish to go out of whack. Am I stressed out because of something with my computer (like the other day when the sound on my computer didn’t work and I couldn’t do a podcast)? Or am I just missing my mama and needing a good cry (instead of an order of fries)?

By stepping back and figuring out the “why” we can all deal with at least part of that automatic need to feed our mouths with food stuffs. At least that’s how I will be looking at it from now on. I know I’m a stress eater. I also know I’m an emotional eater. Simply knowing and thinking about those things helps me navigate those times when my reception becomes fuzzy.

Because once I recognize those things that dish comes back into alignment, the picture comes back into incredibly sharp focus and all is better (and clearer) in the world.